Hi'iaka's Healing Herb Garden

Noni Need NOT Taste Nasty

Whenever someone tells me that they are taking an herb or herbal formula, I always ask “in what form?” Are you eating a plant raw in the hope of getting a therapeutic dosage? That’s a difficult way to ensure you are getting the right amount. Are you drinking it as tea, from fresh or dried plant material, or are you purchasing manufactured teabags? Perhaps you’re taking it in gelatin capsules that you’ve bought. The list of herbal preparations is not long, but the method of administering herbs is important.
I prefer to make herbal preparations, which makes taking herbs easier for me. In addition to teas and capsules, you can make tinctures, herbal oils and vinegars, and salves, liniments and poultices for external use. We’ll talk about making sustainable oils and vinegars with Noni this month.

Noni is very popular and is reported to have a multitude of healthful benefits, such as: antibacterial, antimicrobial, alterative (blood purifier), antiparasitic, stomachic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antiarthritic, antioxidant, analgesic and antihypertensive. I tell people that it’s “pro” everything good and “anti” everything bad. But the “Noni juice” concoction taken by many people confounds me. This common method of preparing the fruit has you placing numerous fruit in a large glass jar and letting them “rot.” You then drink the juice for its medicinal properties. This method is not on the list of herbal preparations that I have ever heard of. (See Michael Tierra’s book The Way of Herbs.) I believe that there are other, delicious ways to benefit from this healing plant.

Making Herbal Oil

Pick Noni slightly green, which means yellow-green. They will ripen in your kitchen, away from direct sunlight, in just a few days. You’ll know when it’s ripe because the smell will be your clue: Noni is ripe when it’s white, squishy and stinky.

Chop ripe Noni into 8 pieces, and then put it into a clean, dry 1-quart jar with tight-fitting lid. Then add:

•   3-4 cloves of garlic and other herbs if desired, such as rosemary or basil, depending on your future use of it
•   32 oz. olive or other oil
Place the jar in a sunny spot for 10 days. A faster method is to bake it slowly at 150 degrees for 3 hours.

After it’s “cooked,” strain your mixture. Pour the oil into jars and seal with a cork or screw-top lid. Store in a cool, dark place. It will keep several months unrefrigerated or indefinitely in the fridge. When you need oil in a recipe such as salad dressing, use this.

Making Herbal Vinegar

Noni makes a wonderful herb vinegar. Apple cider vinegar is the most common and reasonably-priced vinegar and has many healing qualities on its own. From sore throats to arthritis, cider vinegar is widely used. When you add Noni to it, the healing effects are all the more potent. Other types of vinegar might be more appropriate, depending on the recipe you’re making: rice vinegar, red wine vinegar or Balsamic vinegar make a terrific base. I use white vinegar only for cleaning, not for cooking.

Be creative! You can combine herbs such as basil and oregano for extra flavor and interest.
The most ecologically sound method of making herb vinegar is to let it sit in the sun for a full, hot day, as you would for sun tea. If the weather is cool and cloudy, I let it sit on my porch railing for longer. However, if you need your vinegar right away, simply heat the base vinegar in a non-metallic pan such as Pyrex, and then pour it over your herbs. Let it steep for an hour or longer.

To make your sun vinegar, rinse, chop, and place about 2 cups of Noni and other herbs, if you’re including them, in a clean quart jar. Fill with vinegar. Cover tightly and let stand in the sun for one day.
When your vinegar is done, strain it and bottle it in glass bottles. It keeps forever and does not need to be refrigerated. I keep some Noni vinegar in a wine bottle with a pretty label on my kitchen counter at all times. That way, I am reminded to use it whenever I need vinegar in a recipe. I like to add it to stir-fry when it needs a little liquid, toward the end of cooking, and all my salad dressings have Noni vinegar.

Noni-Wasabi Asian Salad Dressing

For 1 pint of dressing, combine the following:
•   1 cup sesame oil, in which you have previously infused Noni
•   1/4 cup Noni vinegar, made with rice vinegar
•   2 TB lime juice
•   1 TB chopped garlic
•   2 TB grated ginger
•   1 tsp. wasabi paste (or more, according to taste)
•   1/2 cup shoyu (soy sauce)

Cover tightly, then shake your dressing and let the flavors blend in the refrigerator for a few hours before using.

For many more recipes using Noni, see Noni: The Complete Guide, by Dr. Scot Nelson and Craig Elevitch.

Upcoming Events:

June 29-30: Pacific Cultural Wellness Festival at Outrigger Keauhou Beach Hotel in Kona will feature a LomiFest, PonoFest, ManaFest, and WellFest. I’ll be speaking about Noni on Saturday morning. FREE on Saturday. Info at 965-8917. www.pacificculturalwellnessfestival.org

July 21: My “Noni Needn’t Taste Nasty” Workshop at Amy Greenwell Garden in Captain Cook. Register at 323-3318.

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Barbara Fahs is the owner and creator of Hi`iaka's Healing Herb Garden, LLC and author of the book Super Simple Guide to Creating Hawaiian Gardens. Contact her at 966-6126 or www.hiiakas.com to learn about her workshops, internships and Garden tours.